The retro-futuristic mind-meld of musician-producers Dinamo Azari and Alixander III with singers Fritz Helder and Starving Yet Full, Toronto’s Azari & III generated plenty of excitement long before their self-titled debut album emerged this year on Modular. And what an album it is: a gleaming hall of mirrors where classic house, funk, pop and R&B collide into some sort of endless disco noir.
Coming our way for Future Music Festival, Azari & III let their namesake producers answer our interview questions as one entity. A sign, perhaps, of the seamless way such different voices, influences and eras blend in their hands.
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First I want to talk about DJing and remixing versus writing original songs.
Well, we were making our original songs first. And then DJing was kind of to promote the music. From there, as we were doing the DJ sets, we were building our live show with the album. They all kind of work together in a way. It’s like a perfect little family.
Over how long a time period was this?
Three years? Just starting up and getting in the studio, definitely a couple years at least. It’s been a nice builder, going from one EP to another and then to the album. It’s been nice, slow growth for us.
Azari & III - 'Manic'
How do you find the music scene in Toronto right now?
The scene is interesting. It’s got a vibrant amount of people. It’s definitely changed in the last five years. There’s been some weird little … I don’t even know how to explain it. Something’s going on. Somebody started a ball and it’s just been rolling ever since. We’re starting to have a lot of interesting music coming out of there. There’s just a lot going on right now. And it’s people coming from all over the world and meeting there and finding their home. You get a bit of the capitalism mixing with this new-world sensibility.
It’s definitely something that goes in waves, though. We’ve got some good expats that have kind of passed on the torch. Every city needs their mentors. A lot of the music coming out of Toronto is on its own tip. Like Peaches: there’s not a lot of [acts like] Peaches out there. There’s not a lot of Crystal Castles out there. And I’m sure all these people I’m naming spawned small subgenres and such. We’ve got some really interesting characters we can look up to and be proud of.
Your music looks forward by looking back: it sounds like the music of the past but isn’t dated. Is it tricky to reference classic sounds but make it feel current?
Well, I mean, rock ‘n’ roll still sounds the exact same, right? Pretty much? It’s almost like even more boring (laughs). What I’m getting at is that all sounds are...I mean, we could have done an electronic album with like just bird sounds or something. These sounds: some of them came out of drum machines from Japan, some of them come out of modern synthesisers from Japan and Europe...
So it’s all just building blocks?
Yeah. These are reference points that we can’t really deny. They’re still in the back of our heads somehow, so we didn’t have to mine too deep. It’s part of our flavouring and character. Taking all the best pieces of different eras and bringing them into a live recording studio and playing with these [elements] – whether it’s machine or guitars – and just manipulating them. And of course you’ve got some old sounds that people might relate to certain genres. Then you’ve got other sounds that relate to other genres.
We were lucky, too. I mean, the futuristic part comes from the fact that we had all the time in the world. Once you have that sound to play around and develop and tweak it -- we spent hours and hours and hours in the studio, just having fun. No direction; just seeing how we can improve something.
I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but the album’s not afraid to be cheesy at times, whether it’s some of ‘Lost in Time’ or the song title ‘Manhooker’.
We’re definitely not afraid of anything, that’s for sure (laughs). That’s Toronto for you, too. We’re fortunate to live in a culture right now that allows you to do that. There’s no judgement at all. What people outside might be hesitant to attempt because they don’t want people to think they’re this or that -- we don’t have those restrictions.
Azari & III - 'Hungry for the Power'
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